Holidramas (or We Are Fa-mi-ly)

Tip of the Day: If $10 electric beaters seem too good a deal to be true, they probably are.

Real life family dramas can be draining enough, but when they are rampant through the holidays, well, get the wine bottle opener ready. Or lock the liquor cabinet, depending on your guests.

Because of the amped-up drama surrounding times that are supposed to be Jolly and Chipper and full of Good Cheer, adding a holiday family gathering into your manuscript can be a great way to increase tension or set the scene for a solid familial blow-up. Besides, you can get the whole family in one location for the ultimate audience for your MC's explosion/revelation/meltdown!

(Ellen Wittlinger's PARROTFISH is an excellent example of using Christmas as the backdrop for a climax/beginning resolution scene. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Ellen Wittlinger)
I need to follow my own advice on this. So far I have two books that feature Independence Day, and one that features a birthday party. Good, but not nearly as potentially theatrical as Thanksgiving through New Years.

However, in writing such scenes since they often do include family, be careful not to too accurately portray your own Crazy Aunt Luella or Drunken Grandpa Pete, lest they recognize themselves upon publication. Unless they thrive on that sort of thing.

This year, family dramas are abounding, but I don't want to exploit the fam's holidrama even if I do find it somewhat amusing. How do you find the balance between writing real minor characters who mirror your own family and flat-out stealing Cheating Cousin Kyle's exact hilarious personality and situation for the sake of your story?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Holidays and writing

Tip of the Day: have your had a cup of hot apple cider lately? Yummy.

The holidays are always a stressful time. There's so much shopping to do, so many activities, so much family to visit.

So why is it that holiday time always brings the desire to write?

At least for me.

Maybe it's because you can't help but people watch this time of year. And the things you see are much stranger than fiction. As in people sleeping out at tents, just to get into Walmart on Black Friday.

Walmart?

Is it really worth that 10 dollars saved?

These questions and others seem to pop up all the time during the holidays. There's just so much going on and so much different stuff happening all around us, I think it's second nature to want to capture it.

Either it's that or watching all those Christmas movies as Kate mentioned yesterday.

Whatever it is, don't forget to take time to write during the holiday. Your brain will appreciate the break from all the other craziness.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

The Ghost of Christmas Backstory

Tip of the Day: Books for Christmas! Sure, you know your YA and MG and even adult bestsellers, but you probably have younger kids on your shopping list. Check out the School Library Journal's Top 100 Picture Books. Something for everyone!

So I watched a LOT of Christmas specials this weekend. (We're Christmas crazy

in my house. Every room smells like pine and sugar cookies!) I began to notice that a lot of Christmas movies follow a pattern. They have a narrator ... who starts by telling us something strange and/or wonderful happened in the past. Then he brings us through the main character's entire childhood until we finally, finally we get to the main story. (I guess in the case of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, the wonderful thing is about to happen, which is sort of an improvement on the pattern.)

Could you imagine writing a book like that? Okay, it can be done. TALE OF DESPEREAUX was written like that. But man, talk about pressure. Your main character has to be really unusual to get away with that.

ELF worked for me because the backstory was so funny (and I love Bob Newhart). And in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, every selected instance from George Bailey's life is so bittersweet. And in RUDOLPH, well, we all know what's going to happen anyway and I can distract myself by wondering what the snow was made out of. (RUDOLPH has to be watched in High Def.)

But you know where the pattern gets really annoying? SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN. Santa was a baby once, did you know that? He learned to make toys, did you know that? Yawn! Also, he adopted a penguin who eventually got him arrested. What the heck? How does that fit into anything?

As a writer, SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN really irks me. Don't tell me it's just kids watching; that's the world's worst excuse for poor craft. That whole entire hour is nothing but backstory.

Dickens had it right. Get a ghost to take care of the backstory for you. You don't even have to worry about transitions!

So which Christmas special gets on your writer's nerves, and why?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

HOLIDAZE TOUR STARTS TOMORROW!!!

I'm a little excited. Can you tell? Lisa has the day off today so I thought I'd sneak in and tell you guys about the Holidaze with the Debs Tour that starts tomorrow!! Authors that debuted in 2009 are grouping up in different areas for super fun signings. I'm so lucky that 5 of them are coming out to me tomorrow in Bolingbrook, IL (at Borders, from 1-3) and then we're all heading downtown for a signing at The Book Cellar (7-9pm). And then I'm having a sleepover. Yep, that's right-- a YA author sleepover. Maybe I'll blog about that next week? :) Anyway, here's the schedule- if you're near any of these areas please come!



2009 DEBUTANTES' HOLIDAZE TOUR

NEW YORK

Dec. 6, 1-3 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th St.
New York, NY
Including: Megan Crewe, Sarah Cross, Deva Fagan, Neesha Meminger, Kate Messner, Shani Petroff, Jon Skovron, Michelle Zink

CHICAGO

Dec. 5, 1-3 p.m.
Borders
161 N. Weber Road
Bolingbrook, IL
Including: Cynthea Liu, Saundra Mitchell, Aprilynne Pike, Kristina Springer, Darcy Vance, Lara Zielin

Dec. 5, 7-9 p.m.
The Book Cellar, Inc.
4736-38 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL
Including: Cynthea Liu, Saundra Mitchell, Aprilynne Pike, Kristina Springer, Darcy Vance, Lara Zielin

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Dec. 5, 3-4 p.m
Borders
588 Francisco Blvd. West
San Rafael, CA
Including: Lauren Bjorkman, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, Malinda Lo, Sarah Quigley, J.A. Yang

Dec. 8, 7 p.m.
Menlo Park Public Library
800 Alma St.
Menlo Park, CA
Including: Lauren Bjorkman, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, C. Lee McKenzie, Sarah Quigley, J.A. Yang

Dec. 9, 12 p.m.
Petaluma High School*
201 Fair St.
Petaluma, CA
Including: Lauren Bjorkman, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, Malinda Lo, Sarah Quigley, J.A. Yang
* Open to the public, but visitors should check in at the school office when arriving

Dec. 12, 2-4 p.m.
The Shops at Tanforan
1150 El Camino Real Space 277

San Bruno, CA 94066

Including: Lauren Bjorkman, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, Malinda Lo, C. Lee McKenzie, Sarah Quigley, J.A. Yang

TORONTO

January 7, 7pm
Yorkdale Indigo
Yorkdale Mall
3401 Dufferin St.
Including: R.J. Anderson, Megan Crewe, Neesha Meminger

Jan. 9, 2 p.m.
Indigo
Eaton Centre
220 Yonge St.
Toronto, Ontario
Including: Megan Crewe, Neesha Meminger, Sarah Ockler, Rhonda Stapleton, Lara Zielin

Kristina, Miss Delighted to Debut

A2A The Teen Years: Which Way Do I Go?

Tip of the Day: I'm doing two fun signings this Saturday with a great group of authors. If you're in/near Bolingbrook, IL or Chicago, IL please come by!

As a teen, I had no clue whatsoever what I wanted to be when I grew up. I always kind of assumed I'd go to college and do something but never gave much thought as to what. The big plans I had with my BFF at that time was for us to graduate high school, get an apartment together next door to our future boyfriends (who would also be BFFs), and go to school somewhere.

And then one my day, I think either late junior year or early senior year, the school guidance counselor called me in and asked what my future plans were and I said I was going to go to college. He told me he didn't think I was smart enough for college and that I should look into being a secretary. Um, what? Nothing wrong with being a secretary but let's back up here-- did you tell me I wasn't smart enough to do something?

So of course I was now on the path to prove him wrong and not only did I go to college, I went on to get my Masters and ended up teaching college courses for six years. So PBBBBBBT! to that guy. I still think I need to track him down on facebook or something and be like um, what was that about me not being smart buddy? :-)

I think it was ok that I had no clue what I wanted to do for a long time. Because I got to try lots of careers to figure out what was the right one. I taught high school, taught college, wrote freelance articles for magazines/web sites, and did technical writing. And now I'm an author, which I LOVE being, and I never saw that coming when I was a teen.

Kristina, Miss Delighted to Debut

A2A The Teen Years: What Will You Be When You Grow Up?

Tip of the Day: Don't deny the powers of the neti pot during cold and flu season!
In junior high, my friends and I played the Ouija Board all the time. One question we liked to ask was "What will we be after high school?" It told Kim she'd be a "sex queen." It told Shaunna she'd be a "nun." It told me nothing! Not that it mattered, I guess, since its predictions for my friends were completely wrong.

In high school, my friends said I was like Daria. She was a book nerd who ripped on social norms and had big hair. Uh, yup -- except unlike Daria I swear I had a sense of humor! (Photo of me is from 10th grade; I must have forgone my glasses for this snazzy pic.) Still, it was no big surprise to anyone when at age 15, I got my first job at the local library.

During this time, I wrote a lot of short fiction for English classes, and when my family got our first computer with Word Perfect, I was psyched to type type type my own social commentaries for the amusement of myself and my friends. That was when I think people first started telling me I was going to be a writer "when I grew up."

Did people say I was going to be a librarian? Despite my six-year tenure at the Parma Public Library as a Page/Processor, I'm not sure anyone did.

At least my friends who guessed were half right. And I'm glad they were!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

My future, according to a teen

Tip of the Day: hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

From the time I was five till seventeen, I only had one career aspiration. I never dreamed of being a princess, firefighter, doctor, or even a wife and mother. Aside from the short stint around age six of wanting to work in a grocery store, because using a cash register seemed like the most exciting thing in the world, I’d always wanted to be a lawyer.

Arguing was in my blood. If my parents stance was my bedtime should be 8 pm, mine would be it should be 9 pm, and I’d have a bulleted list of reasons to support it. Mainly because I loved a good debate, even from a young age.

Plus, lawyers wore suits everyday, got to use words such as “objection” and “your honor,” and always seemed put together on television or in books. And in my mind, they lived alone in the big city, which when growing up in a small town seemed more appetizing than anything in the world.

There was only one type of law I thought of practicing: criminal. To be honest, I’m not sure I realized there were other forms of law until high school and even then they didn’t seem appealing. I loved trying to understand the human psyche and getting to the bottom of a case, so to speak. I’d always loved mystery books, and watched Perry Mason and Murder, She Wrote before crime and law shows became the norm.

It wasn’t until I was looking for colleges my senior year that I really began to think about my future and what I wanted to study. I looked at several pre-law programs and ultimately decided I’d make a horrible criminal lawyer. There’s no way on earth I could defend someone I thought was guilty or prosecute someone that might be innocent.

Ultimately after several major changes, I landed on journalism, advertising, and public relations. And I couldn’t be happier.

Ironically, I turned back to my days of Murder, She Wrote and decided to try my hand at writing after graduation and found my niche in the mystery world. From behind the scenes in making up characters and having the ending turn out exactly how I’d like. And now, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I never made it to the big city to live, but travel to them frequently instead. And ultimately I married way younger than I ever imagined. But it’s funny how things work out and you end up doing exactly what you’re meant to.


--Emily, Miss Querylicious